First Ride: The New Nissan NV200 New York City Taxi

On October 31, the new Nissan NV200 taxis will begin replacing current New York City cabs. Cars in the current fleet, which is 13,237 vehicles strong, have a turnover rate of three to five years. We've covered the new taxi a couple of times here on Proving Ground, but this is the first time we've gotten to go for a ridealong. This protoype is about 98 percent complete, so it's very close to what New Yorkers will be riding in come this fall.

Here's the new taxi from the front. The new lighting system is much more intuitive: When the light is on, the cab is available. When it's off, the cab is occupied. The light bar is also really bright, which should make spotting open cabs easier at 2 a.m.

This is the new taxi from the back. The occupancy indicators on either side of the rear window are smart.

When someone is getting in or out of the vehicle, this walking man lights up to warn approaching vehicles and bicyclists.

Look how flat that floor is. There's no more drivetrain hump to cross if you're sliding to the far side. The even floor also should make life easier for people with luggage or assistance dogs. As you slide the door open, a convenient running board slides out to aid ingress.

The taxis' seats are made of an anti-microbial material that is supposed to help reduce odor. They're also pretty comfy. The belt buckles are bright yellow to make locating them easy, and check out that fancy yellow stitching. Is this a Bentley? For extra storage space, the entire rear seat can be tilted forward.

Ahhhh, just stretching the ol' legs with all this new room. For now the screen is fake, but taxi companies will be able to fit up to a 15-inch screen in this space. In total, the rear has four air vents that are all conveniently located at chest level, not buried down at your ankles.

Passengers will have full control of the dual HVAC. When the passenger gets out, the cab driver can reset the temperature to 75 degrees so that the next passenger isn't blasted with hot or cold air. Of course, the additions New Yorkers should be most excited for are the 12-volt and USB charging ports. My phone was about to die, so I used one of the USB ports to charge up while taking many of these subpar photos.

Because the plastic partition doesn't have a window and is pretty far away from the passengers, the new NV200 features an intercom system. It works great and makes you feel like you're in a space shuttle talking to central command. Just speak normally and the driver can hear everything you're saying. What's also nice is that the driver or the passenger has the ability to shut it off. When the intercom is turned off you can still hear conversations through the plastic, but they're somewhat muffled.

No more weird trapdoor for cash payments. Now we have this little money tray like you'd find at a liqour store or gas station in a dangerous neighborhood. This one is smooth, but the production taxi will have new trays that have a textured surface to keep your money from sliding away.

Each sliding door opens easily and features a drink holder.

Because we're getting only new taxis—and not new drivers— there are two "oh @!$#" handles above each rear passenger and two connected to the partition. The rear reading lights should also come in handy.

Each sliding door also has a sliding window. Because of an issue with the closing latch, Nissan recently had to create a new prototype window that doesn't feel all that solid and rattles quite a bit on bumpy NYC streets. These issues should be resolved before the big roll out. Speaking of NYC's bumpy streets, my taxi handled them quite well. There was a little passenger toss, but that's inevitable with the vehicle's high center of gravity.

A 9-square-foot panoramic roof and big windows give the cabin an open and airy feeling while providing impressive visibility of city surroundings. It's like riding on top of one of those big tour buses. If the sun gets too hot, passengers can just close the shade.

By now you've probably forgotten what an old taxi looks like, so here's one as a reminder (note the advertisement for the new Nissan NV200 taxi running on the screen). Although the hodgepodge of Crown Vics, Priuses, Escapes, and other vehicles currently in the fleet have served us well, it's clear this new ride is an upgrade. Goodbye, weird leather handles.

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